A playground full of thanks for Thanksgiving

It’s about amazing people. And how they have helped us – the Monarch School of New England – build our dream playground.

In case you don’t know, the Monarch School of New England is a day school for students with significant disabilities; we are based in Rochester and in Gonic. We serve students from the ages of 5 to 21 and have been around since the late 1960s.

Our school began as a day care center. Parents of children with disabilities had no place to take their children so as they gathered, they talked about a place that might best fit their needs. With Carrie Foss taking the lead, the Monarch School of New England took root. It grew from a day care center to a school accredited by the New Hampshire Department of Education.

And with the school, came its first playground, again, way back in the early 70s.

In 2009, things began to change. Here at the school, we began to talk about a new playground. We asked staff what they would like to see; we asked students for ideas about things they’d like to climb up and run around on. Maps were drawn and revised. Drawn and revised. Drawn and revised.

Finally, we agreed upon a plan. And a drawing we liked. We were ready. Now all we needed was the people to help us do the work.

And along came the United Way of the Greater Seacoast’s Day of Caring. Each year – in 2010, 2011 and 2012 – volunteers from Public Service of New Hampshire, Unitil, Lonza and the Air National Guard spent their time clearing our land, fixing our nature trail and in general, making the outside of our school look as great as the work being done on the inside.

But there’s more.

This fall, Timberland chose our school as a site for its Serv-a-palooza. So on Sept. 20, over 75 people from Timberland and the Newmarket Girls’ Soccer Team, spent the full day building a 36-foot long ADA compliant footbridge to the space that would support our playground.

These folks did a great deal of other work too, including putting together the beginning of structures that would form our playground. Beautiful things, such as an arch that welcomes you once you cross the bridge…

Which in turn, led to more work being done by more great people. So on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 2 and 3, folks from Heinemann, Timberland, Rochester Rotary, private contractors, Salmon Falls Church, Grace Church, the Mountain Movers and Monarch board members and staff came together for a playground build.

One of the volunteers mentioned it was like a barn raising party where people of different skills and talents (some with more, most with less) come together to make something happen. Which in this case, was a playground.

Diane Bessey, executive director at the school watched in amazement, as pieces of wood hammered together appeared as playground structures.

“I can’t believe this is happening. We’ve thought about this for so long and now it’s real. We’re so lucky to have these great people helping us,” she said.

At the end of it all, we think we might still need one more day of building that will happen in the spring. And at the end of it, you can bet that each of us will be trying out the slide, the music wall and the octagon tower – just because we can.

Besides which, we will need to be sure it all works before our students try it out.

So with great gratitude, we want to tell all of you who have helped us, that we could never have done this without you. You have been fabulous to us and we really, really appreciate it. Our school is that much better because of what you have brought to us.